Jean-Michel Deiss likes to talk spit. That his family, winegrowers since 1744, are established as the Alsatian version of winemaking royalty probably helps him to get away with it. “Wine today is an industrial project,” he told me (through interpretation) during a media tour visit to Domaine Marcel Deiss‘ Bergheim winery. “But great wine is…
Category: kick-ass wines
The People’s Republic (Highlights From “Authentic Alentejo”)
In the grand scheme of the wine world, Portugal appears to be the county that stands tall, despite its relatively small size (about 575 miles long, and just under 140 miles wide). In Napoleonic-complex fashion, it makes up for its stature in other ways; Portugal is in the top ten worldwide in vineyard acreage, per…
37th Heaven (Highlights From The 2017 San Francisco International Wine Competition)
By the time that you read these words, the results of the 37th (!!) annual San Francisco International Wine Competition should be publicly available, so I thought that I would share some of the highlights among the event’s big winners. The SFIWC is one of my favorite weekends of the year. Under the watchful eyes…
The Week That Terrantez Took Over My Brain (Tasting Old Terrantez Madeira)
“As uvas de Terrantez Não as coma nem as dês, Para vinho Deus as fez.” * Earlier this month, I had what amounted to a kind of dream speaking gig for me: leading Madeira masterclasses in both Boston (at Committee) and NYC (at Rouge Tomate Chelsea). Pinch meeeeeee!!!! I was a hired gun for these…